06/11/2026
Did you serve in Afghanistan or Iraq?
Then Joe Houlihan's forthcoming book, The War on Terror on the Big Screen: How the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Redefined Cinema, could be of interest. Joe is very keen to hear the opinions of those that served in Afghanistan and/or Iraq - You don't need to be film buff to contribute, just have an opinion or two about the films you've seen about the Global War on Terror.
If you'd like to help Joe with his book he'd very much appreciate you taking the time to complete this short survey:
https://hubs.li/Q04DzCyW0
"I’m researching my new book - The War on Terror on the Big Screen: How the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Redefined Cinema - an examination of how the movie industry responded to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s a follow-up to my previous title ‘Vietnam on the Big Screen’, which came out earlier this year. In the new work I’ll be exploring how American and British film makers portrayed two very difficult and occasionally controversial conflicts; how their approach was different from that taken by Hollywood in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and how it differs even more so from films about earlier wars such the Second World War and the Korean War. I’ll be speaking to directors, producers and academics but, as with my Vietnam War book, I think it’s incredibly important to include the voices of veterans. I am eager to find out what veterans thought about movies like The Hurt Locker, Green Zone, Lone Survivor, The Covenant and many more. To that end, I would love to hear from anyone who served in Iraq and/or Afghanistan and who has views on the subject - whether about a single movie, several movies or the genre as a whole. As for my background, I spent my career as a journalist and TV documentary maker (including working in war zones and producing documentaries about the military). I now write history books and am the Convenor for Military History at the Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution in Bath, England.”
Photo: Tip Cullen
